"I am doing it for the sake of our children," Dk Rosnah who has since divorced him told the Borneo Bulletin. She had suffered horrendously at his hands. So did her seven-year-old daughter who was bitten and pinched when she could not find her mother from whom he wanted money to buy drugs. She was bruised all over as a result.

Mr Justice Steven Chong sentenced Ahmad Rizal to three years in prison and three strokes of the rotan for assaulting his daughter on June 7 and for cutting up his wife with a knife on four occasions on August 11.

Both victims underwent hospitalisation as a result.

Justice Steven Chong in passing sentence said Ahmad Rizal showed signs of wickedness when he assaulted his daughter. And he had shown no remorse, remarked the judge.

But from what sort of family background did this man come from?

Ahmad Rizal's late father, Haji Yahya bin Hj Hassan was a well known figure during his time in both Bandar Seri Begawan and in Seria where he served for a time as the Post Master. In Bandar he held a senior position in the Postal Services.

His mother, Hjh Hasnah was a nurse in the Brunei capital with a long unblemished record.

Ahmad Rizal was, therefore, from a decent middleclass Bruneian family highly regarded by friends and neighbours.

Ahmad Rizal's parents wanted him to go for further studies after his Form Five. And he could have if he wanted to. He was not too bad in his studies.

Instead he found it hard to leave behind his childhood sweetheart whom he met in school.

"He was a very jealous person," said his mother. "He just could not leave her," she said.

So after Form Five he got jobs here and there and finally worked as a security guard. "He chose to be with her than go overseas," Hjh Hasnah said.

But then how could so much love for a woman turn to such savagery?

Drugs? Another woman?

Well, according to his mother and his ex-wife it was a combination of both. While in Penanjong Camp he mixed with bad company. That led him to drugs.

And according to his wife when he stayed away from her in Penanjong, in Tutong and she because of her job as an assistant teacher in Bandar another woman came into his life. She lived in Tutong and that was convenient the court heard.

And that was the beginning of hell for Dk Rosnah. He changed completely. He who was so gentle before became a devil soon, she said.

She consulted in her distress a bomoh who told her the other woman had cast a spell on him to turn against her.

His mother who apparently dotted on him said that he was always good to her. He was kind and considerate. He apparently was the apple of her eye.

But she also noted changes in him.

Dk Rosnah said Ahmad Rizal often scolded her lately. She just wept on these occasions and left home for a while.